Scientists promise that they will see a mysterious and very distant stranger, whose existence was announced in January 2016, by the New Year 2017.
Somewhere out there in the cold darkness
The fact that in the solar system, in addition to Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus (Pluto has not been considered a planet since 2006 - is too small) most likely there is another planet - the ninth - it is Planet X, it is Planet 9, in early 2016, was announced by astronomers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena (Caltech) in the specialized journal The Astronomical Journal. The news became a sensation, although this ninth planet itself was not seen. It is not visible to this day. But indirect evidence that it really exists is multiplying.
Let me remind you that Planet 9 Brown and Batygin calculated by analyzing the motion of 13 so-called minor planets, whose orbits are located beyond Pluto's orbit in the Kuiper belt - a cluster of massive and not very objects surrounding the solar system. The trajectories of the minor planets indicated that they were being influenced by some very heavy body. Computer simulations have shown: an object that is about 10 times heavier than Earth is affected. It moves in a highly elongated orbit, then approaching the Sun by 200 astronomical units, then moving away by 1200 and penetrating the Oort cloud. An astronomical unit is the distance from the Earth to the Sun. That is, the object is very distant. It needs more than 15 thousand years to fly around our star.
Astronomers have estimated the probability of error in their calculations at 0.007 percent. And they began to search for Planet 9. After all, in order to finally make sure of its existence, the planet must be seen through a telescope.
Planet 9 still belongs to the solar system.
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Look there
It is not known where Planet 9 is now - it can at any point in its elongated orbit. Therefore, her search could drag on for many years. If you aim telescopes at random. But the French astronomers (Agnus Fienga at the Cote d'Azur Observatory in France), who believed in Planet 9, believe that the search area can be narrowed. In their opinion, additional data to clarify the calculations is provided by the trajectory of the Cassini probe, which is now flying at the borders of the solar system. After all, Planet 9 also affects it.
The French, having analyzed the trajectory of "Cassini", figured: it is necessary to look in the direction of the constellation Cetus. Somewhere there, at a distance of 600 astronomical units, is the desired wanderer. Like, if you look closely, you can find it by the New Year.
Meanwhile, Swiss educators and planetary evolutionists - Professor Christopher Mordazini and his colleague Professor Christoph Mordasini and Esther Linder from the University of Bern - explained how an as yet undiscovered planet works. And they determined that its diameter is almost 4 times the earth's.
According to the Swiss, Planet 9 is an ice giant with a mass of 10 Earths, the shell of which consists of hydrogen and helium. The planet is similar to Uranus or Neptune, but smaller. Its temperature is minus 226 degrees Celsius.
Model Planet 9: iron core and silicate rocks inside, frozen gas outside
Astronomers believe that such a cold body is unlikely to be seen through an optical telescope. But infrared will do. When the planet is actually discovered, scientists will assess the damage it can do.
Planet 9 Search Zones
FROM THE HISTORY OF THE ISSUE
What if Planet 9 is the same Nemesis? Or Tyukhe?
A horror story about a certain planet or a cooled star, bringing a global catastrophe, appeared in the 80s of the last century. But it became especially popular in 2011 - about a year before the end of the world, which was designated by the Maya Indians for 2012. Then alarmists, expecting trouble from space, delighted astrophysicists John Matese and Daniel Whitmire of the University of Louisiana (University of Louisiana). It was announced that a very massive object must be located near the solar system - in the so-called Oort cloud.
The Oort Cloud is a real-life giant bubble filled with billions of fairly large blocks of ice and rocks. They, according to astronomers, regularly replenish the number of comets that circulate through the solar system and sometimes fall on planets. Leave giant craters. Including on Earth.
So, many people believe that a giant space object once every several tens of millions of years approaches our planet. It provokes comet rain, gravitational anomalies, catastrophic processes in the bowels, which ultimately lead to the mass extinction of living beings. Previously, the object was called Nemesis, Tyche - in honor of the Greek goddesses, was called Planet X, only assuming that it could exist. But now after the calculations of Brown and Batygin, we should talk about Planet 9.
The Oort Cloud begins well beyond Pluto's orbit. Its outer boundaries, according to some estimates, are one light year from the Sun - this is a quarter of the way to Proxima Centauri, the closest star to us in the Alpha Centauri star system. According to others, the cloud is halfway.
In order for comets to fly out of the Oort cloud and rush into the interior of the solar system, a tangible gravitational effect is necessary. It was believed to be created by Jupiter, the surrounding stars and galaxies. And according to the mathematical calculations of Mathis and Whitmir, it turned out that this was not enough. They say that an additional object is required for the currently observed picture of the motion of comets. It turns out that they are right.
Scientists believe that the object causes global catastrophes every 27 million years. Which matches the schedule for mass extinctions on Earth.
Mathis and Whitmir believe that Planet 9 once killed the dinosaurs. And we can.
Even before Brown and Batygin, David Nesvorny of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, spoke about the "additional" gas giant. And he conducted computer simulations, which showed: four giant planets - Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus, are not enough for our system to form in the form that it now has. The probability of such an event is only 2.5 percent. But the five giants are just right.
David conducted 6 thousand "experiments" to simulate the formation and development of the solar system. And got similar results, which pointed to a fifth planet.
According to the scientist, a colleague was "kicked out" by Jupiter, which moved to a more distant orbit. And it is not at all excluded that Planet 9 is just the "rejected" fifth giant.
Vladimir LAGOVSKY